Statement by EES President Dr Ingo Friedrich, February 23rd, 2024

Most of the left-liberal media believe - quite well-intentioned - that, in addition to the obligation of correct information, they also have an educational mission: The reader or viewer should not only be “educated” to be a better person, but they should also in particular learn to respect the various minorities, even to see them as a wonderful enrichment to his/her otherwise oh so “monotonous” life. In pursuit of this educational goal, many media representations often portray the representative of a minority as the good person who, with character, defends what is right against evil. Conversely, the representatives of the majority population are shown above average as representatives of evil, corruption and the bad. By the way, this media practice makes it much easier to think while watching, because you know with almost certainty that if a representative of a minority appears, he/she is definitely one of the good ones. However, this well-intentioned presentation of a desired reality has two devastating effects, which also have dire political consequences in a second phase.

Impact No. 1: The “majority citizens” compare the reality shown in the media with the “real” reality they experience and then realize: Young men with a migration background are not above average well-behaved, but are more often involved in criminal acts. And people from minorities, on average, behave no better than the majority when it comes to legally relevant activities. If the lives of minorities are portrayed in the media as particularly difficult - which is sometimes true - while in reality access to social benefits, especially citizen's money, is made invitingly easy, then many people feel: The press doesn’t tell the whole truth. And even more devastating: Public broadcasting tells the untruth. If one then notes that almost two thirds of all editors apparently have a political left-wing or green orientation, of course this does not remain without consequences for today's “critical” majority citizens, not to mention the influence of the so-called social media. All of this fuels a harsh rejection of the content of the classic (left-liberal) media. Too many no longer believe it.

Impact No. 2: The bad behavior that is often portrayed in the media as being seen in the majority then leads to a general distrust of everything and everyone. There is practically no praise for ordinary German citizens in the media - probably out of fear of too much national pathos. But we know from educational science how important and helpful such praise is. Why don't you even read: the Germans are particularly polite and fair drivers or the Germans have wonderfully changed their food to be more in tune with health and nature. For the normal German majority citizen, it seems that he/she is constantly criticized, that he/she has to change his/her behavior as quickly as possible and that, if at all possible, he/she has to treat “the others” better than his/her own “compatriots”. While from his/her point of view the minorities are "coddled" in the media, he/she feels pushed around, not particularly noticed and robbed of his/her only privilege, namely the privilege of being able to feel good as a German because "being German", at least in the media, is no longer allowed to be anything special.

If the effects discussed were to remain the same, we could discuss them calmly and strive for improvements. But unfortunately, one has to admit that the developments described above played a not insignificant part in the political shift to the right. (Further reasons can be found in global and European issues with Trump, Le Pen and others). It is simply too easy for the radical AfD to use all of these issues to further their interests, with dire consequences for the style of political discussion and the division of society. The recent large citizen demonstrations are a positive sign of more cohesion and community spirit.

It would be very helpful and would take a lot of wind out of the sails of the right-wing radical parties if the “critical” media would say “we Germans do that well”. Yes, the left-liberal media also has to change and learn if they want to secure democracy in Germany.